Bill makes giving money to government workers a bigger crime.
S. 5509 — No Gratuities for Governing Act of 2026 · Filed by Andy Kim (D-NJ) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Sep 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill creates a new crime. It covers giving or getting $1,000 or more to a government worker. The deal must involve $5,000 or more in federal money. Prison time goes up from 10 years to 15 years. The government can take away money and property from people convicted.
Who it affects
Government workers and people or companies that do business with government. The bill covers federal, state, local, and tribal government workers.
One thing to notice
The bill sets a $1,000 crime threshold but requires a $5,000 deal. The bill does not define what counts as anything of value.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Sep 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 24, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- anything of value — Money, gifts, or other things given to someone in power.
- federal money — Money that comes from the U.S. government.
- take away — The government seizes money or property from someone convicted of a crime.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,415 characters) on Oct 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Bill makes giving money to government workers a bigger crime.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5509/simple Report an error
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